Have you ever read the same book or watched the same movie over and over again, and hope beyond hope that it has a different ending just this one time? As the Jewish community considers the Jacob and ...

Parashat Toldot includes one of my favorite parts of the Torah — specifically, the stealing of the blessing. We can see the warm relationship between Isaac and Esau. We see the comfort in their ...

My Hebrew name is Ya’akov, Hebrew for Jacob. When I celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah years ago at the age of 13, the observance coincidentally coincided with readings in the Torah about the life of ...

I can imagine the first reading would sound a lot different if a public relations firm had a chance to polish it up a bit. Jacob and his mother, Rebekah, don’t come across well. They conspired to ...

The first ethnic joke in the Bible is in chapter 25 of Genesis. Rebekah gives birth to twins, and the first comes out red and hairy all over, so she and Isaac name him Esau. They name him “Hairy.” ...

“בִּסְיוּם הַהִסְטוֹרְיָה הָרוּחַ הַקָּדוֹשׁ יִשְׁתַּפֵּךְ בְּלִי גְבוּלוֹת, עַל כָּל נְשָׁמָה שֶׁהִיא בְּתוֹךְ הַמַּצִּיאוּת.” “At the ...